I am a linguist interested in meaning-making in grammar and discourse. My research focuses on discourse analysis, clinical linguistics and the interaction between pragmatics and health. In discourse analysis, I study information structure, emotion detection and coherence in discourse, often focusing on specific texts or corpora using a socio-cognitive linguistic framework. Some of my work has focused on pragmatics and communication in autism. Other threads in my work include studying neurocognitive factors that drive conversation skills, developing methods for clinical discourse analysis, and analyzing pragmatics from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective.

I have received funding from SSHRC, CIHR and UBC’s Hampton Research endowment Fund for my research. In 2009 I was a Peter Wall Early Career Scholar and in 2011 I received the Killam Faculty Research Fellowship.

I am collaborating on the project ACTE (Autism in Context: Theory and Experience). At the Université libre de Bruxelles. Our main goal is to understand the nature and causes of communication difficulties and language delays in Autism Spectrum Disorder. To investigate these areas we are applying techniques from cognitive psychology and linguistics.

ACTE is supported by the Fonds National de Recherche Scientifique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Université libre de Bruxelles and the Foundation Wiener-Anspach.

http://acte.ulb.be/index.php/en/team2/international-collaborations

Lacus Forum, Vol. 41 (2020). With W. Sullivan, R. Gonsalves and D. Mailman. Linguistics Association of Canada and the United States.

 “Clinical Linguistics” (2019). With E. Asp. In Thompson, G., Bowcher, W.L., Fontaine, L. and D. Schönthal, (eds). The Cambridge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 587-619.

“La pragmatique dans les Troubles du Spectre Autistique: Développements récents”.  (2016). With M. Kissine and E. Clin. Med Sci (Paris) 32, 874–878

When Language Breaks Down. 2010. With Elissa Asp. Cambridge University Press.

Communication in Linguistics. Vol.2. Michael Gregory’s proposals for a communication linguistics. (2009) With R. Stainton, (eds). Toronto: Éditions du Gref.

My teaching areas are discourse, conversation, pragmatics and linguistic structure. I teach using a range of linguistic approaches, depending on the focus or topic being studied. I also encourage students to include a variety of approaches and techniques in their study of English language.

In my courses I treat linguistics as something that we do, not just something that we study or know, and so my classes tend to be activity based, while still providing strong theoretical foundations. I also emphasize the social aspect of language and communication, encouraging interaction among students and collaborative learning.